Adult

FAMILY FURNISHINGS brings us 24 of Alice Munro’s most accomplished, most powerfully affecting stories, many of them set in the territory she has so brilliantly made her own: the small towns and flatlands of southwestern Ontario. These stories illuminate the quotidian yet extraordinary particularity in the lives of men and women, parents and children, friends and lovers as they discover sex, fall in love, part, quarrel, suffer defeat, set off into the unknown, or find a way to be in the world.

At 75, Florence Gordon has earned her right to set down the burdens of family and work and shape her legacy at long last. But just as she is beginning to write her long-deferred memoir, her son Daniel returns to New York from Seattle with his wife and daughter, and they embroil Florence in their dramas, clouding the clarity of her days and threatening her well-defended solitude. And then there is her left foot, which is starting to drag….

The latest work from the celebrated author of the historical novels WOLF HALL and BRING UP THE BODIES is a collection of 10 stories, Hilary Mantel’s first collection since 2003’s LEARNING TO TALK. Many of these contemporary tales play with the conventions of genre; there’s even a vampire tale. But the title story, about an imagined attempt on the former Prime Minister’s life, will, not surprisingly, get the most attention.

COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE is the long-awaited new novel from the award-winning, internationally bestselling author Haruki Murakami. Here he gives us the remarkable story of Tsukuru Tazaki, a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present.

In a series of dramatic monologues, first-century men and women --- some real, some imaginary --- remember, often from the perspective of old age, their encounters with Jesus and reflect on the significance of those encounters. Some comprehend and welcome him as Messiah. Others comprehend him only as an extraordinary figure and remain puzzled by their memories. A few are angered by him and bitterly reject any claim their encounter might make on them.

If you crave a simpler life anchored by the priorities that matter most, roll up your sleeves: Simplified living requires more than just cleaning out your closets or reorganizing your desk drawer. It requires uncluttering your soul. By eradicating the stuff that leaves your spirit drained, you can stop doing what doesn’t matter --- and start doing what does. In SIMPLIFY, Bill Hybels identifies the core issues that lure us into frenetic living --- and offers searingly practical steps for sweeping the clutter from our souls.

The town of Medgar, Kentucky, is beset by a massive Mountaintop Removal operation that is blowing up the hills and back filling the hollows. Fourteen-year-old Kevin's grandfather and others in town attempt to rally the citizens against the “company” and its powerful owner to stop the plunder of their mountain heritage. When Kevin’s friend, Buzzy, witnesses the brutal murder of the opposition leader, a sequence is set in play that tests Buzzy and Kevin to their absolute limits in an epic struggle for survival in the Kentucky mountains.

Eighty-five-year-old Addie Baum tells the story of her life to her 22-year-old granddaughter, who has asked her “How did you get to be the woman you are today?” She begins in 1915, the year she found her voice and made friends who would help shape the course of her life. From the one-room tenement apartment she shared with her parents and two sisters, to the library group for girls she joins at a neighborhood settlement house, to her first, disastrous love affair, Addie recalls her adventures with compassion for the naïve girl she was and a wicked sense of humor.

Tara Faulkner and Seth Grissom grew up next door to each other in Savannah’s historic district. Their parents are best friends. They finish each other’s sentences all the time. Their fairytale wedding is a foregone conclusion...until Tara discovers another side to Seth three weeks before the wedding. Reality has crashed in on Tara’s fairytale --- but hope will lead her to a future she couldn’t have planned for herself.